Where decision-making is required to bring relief to people who have been affected by floods, pandemics or hardships of any kind, you can see my sensitivity here…But someone pulls me into a boat for a photo. ? I’m not into this!
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has hit out at those who claim he lacks empathy, saying he decided not to join “flood politics”.
He addressed questions on the matter in the following interview with Express Political Editor RIA TAITT as 2022 drew to a close last week
Question: Different leaders have different personalities. But what do you say to people—and it includes people who wish you well—who have a concern that you seem emotionally removed from some of the pain and anguish of the population; and in saying this, I cite the example of the devastating floods that the country faced in November. The cabinet you chair allocated funds for flood relief, you set up an inter-ministerial committee and you were getting reports from ministers, but people felt you were lacking when it came to showing empathy.
Answer: In those circumstances, what do you mean by empathy?
Q: You could have visited the flooded areas to meet the people, right?
Answer: On this occasion I decided not to join ‘flood politics’. Why didn’t I take this opportunity to walk in the muddy water on the road, to compete with the ‘flood politics’ that I have no empathy for? Where did the country first receive notice of this developing situation? It was from the Prime Minister’s office. I used the international alert to issue a notice. Our Met office had not yet issued such a notice. I put up a post on my Facebook page and the Prime Minister’s Office Facebook page indicating that we would be experiencing this weather system in the coming days. I put in place four ministers who report directly to me on a 24-hour basis (Ministers of Local Government, Works and Transport, Agriculture and Social Development) and we succeeded and exactly what we predicted happened. And from day one, the ‘flood policy’ began. I had the option to go there, or stay here or go to Tobago, but the bottom line is that the Government that I led, I personally led the government on the ground. And from Tobago to Cedros we used the system…Those who believe that as soon as it rains and water pours on the road, the prime minister should come there, we don’t manage things like that.
Q: Even when there are unprecedented floods?
Answer: And that’s exactly why it was managed this way. I stayed focused with the four ministers. The Minister of Works and Transport was there non-stop. It even involved the Minister of Education and the question of whether the school should be closed. So instead of being out there looking for a picture, I had ministers with various responsibilities in place to manage this, from Friday to Tuesday and I was in charge of them. So everything you saw them doing, I was involved, to the point where we determined the extent of the damage and $150 million was earmarked for immediate road replacement and $20 million for social assistance. Who do you think managed all this? Maduro? Did I like Ted Cruz and jump on a plane and go to Cancun? Ask all the people who were involved—National Insurance, Local Government, etc, who were managing the response on those bad weather days.
Q: During that time of the floods, you posted a photo of yourself and Sir Viv Richards on the golf course, a beautiful photo, with one of cricket’s greats. But the timing of its release fueled that perception of a lack of sensitivity or a degree of condescension.
A: “They (the Opposition) don’t need me going out at 6am with Viv Richards to take the position they take. When has the opposition ever supported something I’ve done? What was the opposition’s campaign against us from the beginning? (It was) That the Government does not care. So this is nothing new. I don’t think I need to show that I take this job seriously and care about people’s interests. As Prime Minister, I am not in this job serving myself, I work hard and take the public interest very seriously and I don’t think I need to demonstrate that this is the case. The facts support it. If I go to the golf course at 6 and spend some time with Viv Richards and someone wants to make it the biggest issue of their political career, so be it.
I was up at 3am talking to Rohan Sinanan who was regularly out on the field, talking to Faris Al-Rawi who was also out on the field because I wanted to know exactly what was going on with people . I was monitoring the Caroni River, the St Joseph River and I knew there were people there and government departments there making sure the systems were in place.
And you know even though they are criticizing me (for not visiting the flooded areas), have you seen the behavior of Inshan Ismael and them towards Rohan Sinanan and Faris? Is this the kind of empathy we are talking about? I have a job to do and I did the job. And those who didn’t have the job could easily say it wasn’t well done. I can tell you that at no time have I been detached from this matter.
It is because of the empathy I have for the people for whom I am responsible as Prime Minister that the policies and programs of this Government are designed to bring relief to people who are going through a difficult time. We have tripled the personal (tax) allowance during our term to put more money into people’s hands. We have increased the limit for people who benefit from SHKB pensions and pensions for the elderly, we have provided free driver’s licenses and passports for people over 60 years old. We have given discounts on electricity bills for low-income families. We have increased the value of food cards. We have increased public assistance. We have expanded disability grants to include people under 18 and children with special needs. We increased salaries in CEPEP and URP by 15 percent. We removed the VAT for more basic foods and reduced the VAT from 15 to 12.5 percent. We have paid $250 million in bonuses to workers in the health sector. We’ve spent millions of dollars on food boxes to deliver fresh food to people’s homes, delivering chicken and vegetables to ensure people are fed. We have provided rent relief, wage relief grants to tens of thousands, and ensured that every single person on government assistance continues to do so and that every public servant remains on the state payroll. We are now in the process of awarding transport grants to all social grant recipients.
I do all this because I really care about those who are least able to cope with the period of difficulty and because I don’t want families to go without food. We’ve provided a wealth of things to support businesses – small, medium and large – because we want people to be employed. These are real things that have been done.
This is how you show empathy. Not having someone pull you in a boat across the water to take a fake photo. I’m not into that nonsense. Where decision-making is required to bring relief to people who have been affected by floods, pandemics or hardships of any kind, you can see my sensitivity here…But someone pulls me into a boat for a photo. ? I’m not into this!”.
